Retswerb

Welcome aboard! Glad to have you here.

Clean lines, looks great! Is the inside lined?

How tall is the woman? Cross-body or single shoulder? And the most important one of all, how long does she want it? Once you’ve answered those questions you’re on the right track keeping the buckle a little off the shoulder.

Fantastic! I hope you’re recovering well.

Of course! I think I’ve seen that one before (maybe here) but couldn’t remember it. Off to google Tannoy now, at least I know what Kleenex is.

FYI for my fellow Americans who may be unaware as I was: fairy liquid is a brand of dish soap. I finally had to look it up.

This is great though, and I hope you know we’re all cheering for you. There’s lots to learn and just think of what you know now about making a sheath that you had never had reason to think about until now. Plus I suspect even this first sheath is going to turn out great.

I would think so too but the photos and videos on the site look more or less like a smooth finish. I’ve seen that sort of marketing too, of course, but this site stood out to me as not being that way much. I see no need to oppose healthy leather alternatives if they’re a decent product. The existence of alternatives doesn’t replace the value of leather. Of course I have no idea if this is a decent product or not, and like I said, I’m skeptical. Still curious though.

Nice work as usual and some beautiful knives too. Plus your photography is always excellent.

Ran across madewithreishi.com tonight, just curious if anyone here has seen the stuff in person. I’m extremely skeptical that it’s actually as similar to leather as they claim but would love to get my hands on some to see what it’s like.

Welcome aboard, Skip! Glad to have you here.

Making a sheath for the sake of a knife lots of us have done, but I reckon not many have made a knife for the sake of a sheath! Nice job all the way around.

Yep, if you can’t remove the ink then use a darker dye and be glad it’s the back side and not the front. I like your fortune cookie signature, very true! What I use for marking depends on what I’m doing. If I’m using a straightedge for layout I usually use a scratch awl. For tracing I have a blunted awl that does ok, but the lines are sometimes hard to see. I’ve heard of others using a ball point with no ink, haven’t tried it myself.

Fantastic work. Thanks for sharing the pics and your process.

Must... not... reveal... my... jealousy... Seriously though, this looks like an awesome space and it looks like you’ve thought through it well. Only thing I’m surprised not to see is some sort of stone surface, but you know your own needs best.

Creative re-use, I like it. I can picture some folks would be crazy about these with magnets embedded for the purported health benefits.

Great looking bag! Nice work.

Waaaaait a minute though. If this were true, think of the effect it would have using a chisel to punch holes along one side of a belt or strap. If the chisels are increasing the length of the leather along that run you would end up with a really noticeable bend along the strap. I think the spaces in between the chisel holes absorb the ‘excess’ leather pushed aside by the chisels. Especially with chisel tines as thin as shown in the first pic, I think the answer is somewhere else.

How uneven is it now? A pic might help.

Finish that sucker! If for no other reason because there’s still a host of opportunities remaining where you can still screw up this build lol. At least this way you can see the process all the way through and limit your chances of running into surprises on the next one. Your spacers should work just fine.

Awesome. Way to see the potential in the unexpected!

Nice job Frodo! Turned out great.

No shame there @Chris623! You’re off to a fine start, and learning as you go. All part of the fun. Your assessment is right, the leather was too wet. Sometime when you’re around the house for a while take a piece of scrap leather and case it and then as it dries stamp it once or twice every so often. Keep doing that until the leather dries. You’ll get to see the progression with the leather at different moisture levels and how it responds to the tool, can be a helpful learning aid.

That’s great, thanks for sharing. The prices often charged for these units are somewhat baffling to me since, as you’ve shown here, the components are basic.

All part of the process. A year from now you’ll look back on this and it will show you how much you’ve learned. An inch is a lot of stretch, I’ve never had anything stretch that much. Post those pics when you get a chance, let’s have a look.